Leaving for Ethiopia was a really big deal for me; I’m originally from Texas so this is the farthest I’ve ever been from home, and the longest I will have gone without seeing my family! If I wasn’t so incredibly excited about this internship it would have been a lot more difficult!

It was actually one of the smoother trips I’ve had, we didn’t have any major problems. It was just LONG; we were traveling for over 24 hours! But we arrived safely in Addis Ababa, and were picked up from the airport by one of our mentors, the dean of Tegbare-id, Albert Rorairus. On the way out we got our first view of Addis; I will have to get a picture of the view from the airport on our way out, the city is all laid out right in front of you.

Addis spreads over about 200 sq miles, and has a nominal population of about 4 million, though it’s probably a lot more. The city is teeming with life, there are people and cars everywhere, but also a lot of trees! The zoning isn’t quite the same, so you move between different areas pretty quickly. Addis is also undergoing rapid expansion, so there’s construction everywhere, making for a lot of dust.

I can’t wait to see more when I’m more awake; Albert was filling us up with fantastic Ethiopian coffee, but sometimes that just won’t do it haha! We went to the guest house we’re staying at, Martin’s Cozy Place, which is great; it’s kind of like a hostel so there’s a lot of young people from other countries. We also got to see Tegbare-id very briefly and meet up with a few people we’ll be working with. Everyone has been really nice and seems very excited to have us here! Then back to Martin’s to unpack, shower, and SLEEP.

Also, I’ve been having trouble uploading pictures (internet is rather slow), but we’ll hopefully find a way soon!